When I grow up | #BC LIVE SESSION 13 RECAP

February 14, 2018

#BRAINCANDIES SESSION 13 has been a beautiful experiment for two reasons.

Reason number 1. For the first time ever, we split the SESSION into two different sub SESSIONS: a STUDIO SESSION and a LIVE SESSION.

Reason number 2. We had the youngest speaker ever, the youngest, Stella, was 6 years old, and the oldest one, Rose, was 11 years old.

Let‘s start talking about our first #BRAINCANDIES STUDIO SESSION. The idea to make a separate SESSION, was when Mel, one of the awesome mums that helped us finding brave and English-speaking kids (and daring parents), made the suggestion that making a separate SESSION with no audience and only a camera, might have helped the kids to break the ice, considering that they would have had to face a crowd of more than 50 people, without having spoken to an audience ever before. The result of such an inspiring day? You will be able to see the special studio SESSION video by staying tuned on our platforms. They will be out soon! In the meanwhile, you can see a short trailer and a picture of the day.

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A behind the scenes picture of the #BRAINCANDIES STUDIO SESSION.

The theme of our #BRAINCANDIES (LIVE & STUDIO) SESSION 13 was “When I grow up”. Therefore it was not difficult for the different members of the audience, to feel connected to the theme, to re-discover old dreams or to generate new ones. It was the first time that the age-range was so broad at our event and before the event we were really curious to see how it would have turned out to work.

Fullhouse in the Baltan basement.

Cristian, as a host of the evening, prepared the evening with some extra-care, considering that one of the main goals of the evening was to let the mini-speakers have an enjoyable time and we never know how scary a group of 50 tall people can be, when all of a sudden you see them standing in front of you and staring at you. And from our experience, we noticed that it does not really make a big difference if you are an adult or a child. A bit of nervousness come for most of the people.

A little warm-up with the speakers.

As every other time, after introducing wedowe and the motives behind #BRAINCANDIES, we used our wedoexperiences to break the ice and make the room filled with strangers become a room filled with (at least) acquaintances, as soon as we can.

Every one of the 5 brave kids had a story who connected to the topic and that they prepared with the help of their parents.

Breaking the ice the old school way.

Our first speaker was Stella, the youngest of the crew. At 6 years of age, Stella shared with us her vision for the future, a world where we can understand animals so that we can care for them better, a world where we can travel to the US in 5 minutes. Stella did an adorable performance and despite the shyness at the beginning of the evening, she kept coming on stage for difference wedoexperiences during the night.

Stella - Up in the Air

The second speaker of the evening was Kevin, 7 years, active, happy, sporty boy which is half Dutch and half Indian. He loves tennis, swimming, skiing, ice skating and judo. But he also loves art and reading. He explained why art is for everyone and his passion for painting. He also gave us an awesome painting that is currently in our office.

Kevin - Art is for everyone

Sunaina was the third speaker of the evening. An 8 year old that made the audience melt with her clever speech about what she wants to do when she grows up, a something that kept changing every year since she was 2.

Sunaina - Why I'm a drama queen

The sister of Sunaina, Tara, was the fourth speakers. She inspired the audience sharing her wish to become a Panda scientist after she had first hand expense with Pandas in China. She shares her passion for nature and these lovely animals and her ambition to join the cause of Panda repopulation, preservation, and wellbeing.

Tara - Pandemonium

The last planned speaker of the evening was Rose, 11 years old. Among her different wishes for the future, Rose is very aware of the role that plastic and its consumption plays in polluting the planet and that we should really commit to making a change since the new generations are already living in a world in which already too much plastic exists.

Rose - The future of our planet

As every time, we had an improvised speaker for the evening. This time was the time of Veronica from Mexico, which, was brave enough to come on stage and improvise a talk about the challenges that the evening itself brought to her and many other people who were present at the #BRAINCANDIES LIVE SESSION and how come on stage and face ones uncomfortabilities it is actually a powerful drive for self-.

Apart from the braveness and the awesomeness of the young speakers that joined us on stage, a common line that could be found in every speech was their dream and, to a certain extent, plan, to grow up in a world that value and respect nature, our fellows’ animals and our fellow humans.

Our young speakers for the evening all lined up!

Despite the young age of (most) of the speakers, the audience did not spare difficult questions that engaged the audience in deep reflections. As much as we like to our audience to be mindful, we like our audience to break-out-of-the comfort zone, meet new people and, simply have fun. A thing, that, judging from the pictures we were able to achieve!

Moments of connection. simple

Thanks to all the participants who contributed to make this SESSION another memorable experience! Till the next one!

And here is some of the feedback we manage to gather from our participants with the "one thing" they have learned during the evening.

The most important feedback from our .wedoform

Children can teach us about the future of our world.

Children are not shy to take their time before starting to speak.

Audience & Crowd management

Just go for it if you want to reach something

Take your time and be honest when talking in public.

Inclusiveness

Didn't learn and don't have to learn anything. It was just nice and friendly :)